Beginners Guide To The Gym

 A Beginners Guide To The Gym

First time gym user? Don’t be nervous. If you’ve never exercised before and want to hit the gym, I have a game plan for you! Let me show you around the gym and guide you to the lean, athletic physique you desire. This easy-to-understand progression is safe, effective and will have you two piecin’ in South Beach in no time! Before you put my game plan into action, remember one thing, you can’t out-train a poor diet. If you need a diet plan to go along with this program, enter your email in the field below and I will send it to you!

Follow the below phases, programming, and exercises to create a foundation of strength over a 90 day period.

Phase 1 – Muscular Stabilization Phase (30 days)

To reach your goals, the key elements are longevity and consistency in the gym. Starting with weights too fast can lead to injury. If you are injured you cannot consistently lift weights and reach your goals. 

Begin with body weight only for the first 30 days. These four movements will give you a foundation of strength you need to add external resistance while keeping you safe. Repeating the same movements in the first 30 days is important to the next 60. Your muscles need to be conditioned to add resistance. If you are already efficient with body weight exercises, skip to phase two.
Week 1: MWF 10 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 2: MWF 20 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 3: MWF 25 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 4: MWF 30 Reps x 6 rounds

Phase two you will begin the Muscular Endurance Phase and build your physique with external weight, adding resistance to your body.

Phase Two – Muscular Endurance Phase (30 days)

During phase one you will feel extreme soreness in the first couple weeks and a subsiding “dull soreness” as you progress into weeks three and four. It is important, especially going into month two, to take your full recovery time. Consequently, adding weight in phase two will cause you to revisit the “I can barely sit down” type of soreness.

This phase will allow your body to move an external load thus recruiting deeper fibers. Because repetitions between 15-30 per set will promote a lean, hard, striated physique

Week 1: MWF 15 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 2: MWF 20 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 3: MWF 25 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 4: MWF 30 Reps x 5 rounds

Phase Three – Hypertrophy Phase (30 days)

During phase two you will feel soreness throughout the entire phase. Recovery is important, especially when you are only 60 days into your first run at the gym. Hypertrophy training allows you to gain maximum lean muscle tissue with each workout. Phase four is only if your goals are to gain bulk mass.

Phase three is also known as the “failure phase” and one of the few times in life where failure is your goal. Each set should leave you barely being able to complete the last rep with maximum efforts.

You will also be adding Tuesday and Thursday isolation days. Hence, to build a physique, each muscle group must reach the hypertrophic state each week. So, as you progress in Hypertrophy, you will continue to stay in the same rep range and increase the weight with each workout to achieve complete failure.

After 30 days of the following this programming you will no longer be a beginner in the weight room. As a result, you will then switch your routine up and no longer do the same workout twice. Your programming should be much more intricate to continue the results exponentially.

Week 1: MWF 12 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 2: MWF 12 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 1)

Week 3: MWF 12 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 2)

Week 4: MWF 12 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 3)

Week 1: T/TH 15 Reps x 5 rounds

Week 2: T/TH 20 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 1)

Week 3: T/TH 25 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 2)

Week 4: T/TH 30 Reps x 5 rounds (increase weight from week 3)

This program will get you through the beginner phases of the gym to knowing the foundational movements like a pro! Therefore, these workouts may seem repetitive, and this is on purpose. Since you are new to working out, or have never worked out before, you have to first condition your major muscle groups to fire properly and be strong through the entire range of motion.

At Burn Boot Camp we follow this almost to a tee. Since you are under the supervision of the world’s best trainers at Burn, we will change your movements more often. It is not our goal to run you into the ground and flex our tough trainer muscle. However, our goals are to get you fit, keep you safe, and exceed your goals! 

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